Junior business minister Jackie Doyle-Price has been handed responsibility for the government’s construction brief.
Rumours have been circulating that the Thurrock MP had been appointed as construction minister ever since she was appointed as a minister of state in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) last month.
And this week, Doyle-Price’s biography on the Department for Business, Enterprise and Skills website was updated with her new job title of minister for industry.
Her wide ranging brief includes responsibility for infrastructure and materials, including steel, energy-intensive industries, chemicals and construction.
The job will also cover supply chains, industrial decarbonisation, skills, levelling-up and regional growth, economic shocks, advanced manufacturing, the automotive sector, and economic shocks.
Doyle-Price, who has been an MP since 2010, replaces Lord Callanan after he spent two and a half months in the role. She is the 22nd MP to step into the role of construction minister since 2001.
CN has approached BEIS for comment.
Doyle-Price was appointed as part of a reshuffle undertaken by Liz Truss after she became Prime Minister last month.
Former construction minister Lee Rowley was named housing minister, after he resigned from his role in construction after losing confidence in former PM Boris Johnson in July.
Another former construction minister, Anne-Marie Trevelyan replaced Grant Shapps as transport secretary, while Simon Clarke was named secretary of state for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).
Doyle-Price’s appointment also follows a number of policy announcements announced as part of chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget.
He announced the government would ditch or reform vast parts of the planning system for infrastructure, citing a 65 per cent increase in the time taken to grant Development Consent Orders for major projects since 2012 as an example of a “broken” system.
Kwarteng also said the government will unpick planning restrictions and “EU-derived laws that constrain our growth”.
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